Apparatus for moving a cassette between storage and receiving locations

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a magnetic tape cassette handling apparatus which is compact and reliable and which handles cassettes gently and firmly. The handling apparatus includes (a) a pusher member for gently moving a cassette forwardly into a cassette receiving location, and (b) clamping members for firmly clamping a cassette while moving the cassette rearwardly out of the cassette receiving location. The cassette handling apparatus is preferably located in a central opening of a cassette storage ferris wheel structure which is mounted adjacent to a magnetic tape recorder/player. Thus, the cassette handling apparatus loads and unloads a cassette from the ferris wheel structure into and out of the magnetic tape recorder/player.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates in general to magnetic tape cassetterecorder/players and, more particularly, to a magnetic tape cassetterecorder/player having a magnetic tape cassette handling apparatus whichis reliable and compact and which handles cassettes gently and firmly.

In many applications, it is desirable to store a large amount ofinformation on electronic media, such as to store analog or digitalinformation on a plurality of magnetic tape cartridges or cassettes.Various types of storage systems have been proposed for storing a numberof magnetic tape cassettes close to a magnetic tape recorder/player, sothat individual cassettes are easily accessed by the recorder/player. Inone such storage system, a plurality of magnetic tape cassettes arestacked in a vertical magazine adjacent to a magnetic taperecorder/player. Such storage systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.3,886,591, issued May 27, 1975, Inventor Bettini; U.S. Pat. No.4,133,013, issued Jan. 2, 1979, Inventor Fisher; and U.S. Pat. No.3,956,768, issued May 11, 1976, Inventor Covington. Vertical stackingstorage systems are disadvantageous for the following reasons: (1) thereels of magnetic tape in the cassettes are stored in a flat position,thus tending to cause sideways shifting of the tape pack against thereel flanges, which results in tape edge damage, causing tape transportdifficulties and recorded information degradation; (2) access to anindividual tape cassette is slow; and (3) storage of a large number oftape cassettes requires the vertical dimension of the storage system tobe unacceptably large.

In order to reduce the time for access to an individual magnetic tapecassette, various closed loop storage systems have been proposed. Thus,carousel type cassette storage systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.3,592,975, issued July 13, 1971, Inventor Ban; U.S. Pat. No. 3,631,426,issued Dec. 28, 1971, Inventor Appelt; U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,915, issuedNov. 27, 1973, Inventors Kozu et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,765, issuedAug. 14, 1979, Inventor Gysling. The systems disclosed in these patentsincludes a carousel type storage structure which store a plurality ofcassettes in circumferentially spaced, horizontally disposedcompartments. Since the cassettes are stored with the reels on edge,edge damage to the tape during storage is minimized. In the latter threepatents, an elevator mechanism is used to load and unload a cassetteinto a magnetic tape transport station. In the former patent, themagnetic tape transport is moved into and out of contact with a cassettewhich remains in its storage compartment. An analogous system isdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,294, issued Dec. 13, 1977, InventorBurkhart, which discloses a carousel like conveyor storage system. Atape cartridge transfer mechanism is located adjacent a magnetictransducing station. The storage systems disclosed in these five patentsare disadvantageous either because of the use of a cassette loadingstation located adjacent to the storage structure which is relativelycomplex and space consuming or the use of a complex and expensive,movable tape transport.

Ferris wheel type cassette storage systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat.No. 3,525,086, issued Aug. 18, 1970, Inventor Lichowsky, and U.S. Pat.No. 4,287,541, issued Sept. 1, 1981, Inventors Tanahashi et al. Thesystem disclosed in the latter patent is disadvantageous because of thecomplex and space consuming, side loading cassette loading device whichloads a cassette into recording apparatus.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, there is provided a magnetic tapecassette handling apparatus which obviates the disadvantages of knowntape cassette handling apparatus. According to an aspect of the presentinvention, there is provided magnetic tape cassette handling apparatuswhich is compact and reliable and which handles cassettes gently andfirmly. The cassette handling apparatus includes a pusher member forgently moving a cassette forwardly into a cassette receiving locationand clamping members for firmly clamping a cassette while moving thecassette rearwardly out of the cassette receiving location. According toanother feature of the present invention, the cassette handlingapparatus is preferably located in a central opening of a cassettestorage ferris wheel structure which is mounted adjacent to a magnetictape recorder/player. The handling apparatus loads and unloads amagnetic tape cassette from the ferris wheel storage structure into andout of a magnetic tape recorder/player.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In a detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the inventionpresented below, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in whichlike numerals refer to like elements.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view of an embodiment of thepresent invention,

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the embodiment of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing a drive system for rotation of theembodiment of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the cassette handling device of theembodiment of FIG. 1, and

FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 are top plan views which are useful in describing theoperation of the cassette handling device of the embodiment of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now FIGS. 1 and 2, there is described a preferred embodimentof the present invention. As shown, magnetic tape cassette storage andhandling apparatus 10 includes a ferris wheel tape cassette storagestructure 12 and cassette handling device 14. Structure 12 includes anannular outer member 16 and an inner member 18 having a plurality ofcircumferentially spaced, radially extending compartments 20 for storingmagnetic tape cassettes 22.

Member 18 has a central opening 24 in which is located cassette handlingdevice 14. Member 18 has a support ring 26 which is mounted for rotationabout a horizontal axis on grooved guide rollers 28 journaled onstationary support member 30. A drive mechanism for rotating cassettestorage member 18 includes a wheel 32 having a pin 34 and asemi-circular member 36. Pin 34 engage radial slots 38 in the peripheryof ring member 26 and semi-circular member 36 engages arcuate slots 40on the periphery of ring member 26. There are as many slots 38 and slots40 around the periphery of member 26 as there are cassette storagecompartments 20 in member 18. Members 32 and 36 are rotatable about anaxis 42 by means of a motor or the like (not shown).

When storage member 18 is stationary, semi-circular member 36 nests inslot 40 of ring 26 to prevent rotation of storage member 18. Rotation ofmember 32 causes pin 34 to be rotated into a slot 38. As member 32continues to rotate, pin 34 rotates storage member 18 to step, the nextcompartment 20 containing a magnetic tape cassette, into alignment withslot 44 in annular member 16. Slot 44 is adjacent to cassette loadingslot 46 of magnetic tape recorder/player 48 (FIG. 2). Sensors may beprovided to sense the presence or absence of a cassette 22 incompartment 20. As member 32 continues to rotate, pin 34 will disengagefrom slot 38 and member 36 will engage the a slot 40, to hold storagemember 18 stationary during unloading or loading of a cassette 22.

As shown, more particularly, in FIG. 4, cassette handling apparatus 14includes a slide member 50, a pusher member 52 and clamping members 54.Members 54 are pivotally mounted on either side of member 50 by brackets56. Members 50 and 52 are slidably mounted on dovetail guide member 58which is mounted on L-shape bracket 60. Linkages 62 pivotally connectmembers 54 to pusher member 52 and are biased together by means oftension spring 64.

Members 50 and 52 are linked together by means of slidable pins 66.Cassette handler 14 is driven by means of a motor 68 mounted on member50. Motor 68 has a screw shaft 70 which is connected at one end tobracket 60. Actuation of motor 68 causes linear actuation of shaft 70,which effects reciprocal movement of member 50.

Referring now to FIGS. 5, 6 and 7, there is described, the operation ofcassette handling apparatus 14 in unloading and loading a magnetic tapecassette 22 from a compartment 20 of member 18, into and out ofrecorder/player 48. As shown in FIG. 5, members 54 are retracted andpusher member 52 contacts a cassette 22 in alignment with loading slot46 of cassette recorder 48. As shown in FIG. 6, motor 68 has beenactuated to drive members 50 and 52 along guide 58 to gently movecassette 22 forwardly out of compartment 20 into loading slot 46 ofmagnetic tape recorder/player 48. Magnetic tape recorder/player 48 has aloading mechanism having rollers 72. Rollers 72 move cassette 22completely into recorder/player 48. After a cassette 22 has been removedfrom its compartment 20 in member 18, motor 62 is actuated to withdrawmembers 50 and 52 to the position shown in FIG. 5.

After a cassette has been unloaded from recorder/player 48, motor 62 isactuated to move member 52 into contact with cassette 22. Furtheractuation of motor 62, (a) causes member 50 to close on member 52, (b)toggles forward clamping members 54, so that V-shaped ends of members 54engage notches 74 in cassette 22. Spring 64 biases members 54 topositively clamp cassette 22.

Motor 62 is reversed to cause handler 14 to firmly move cassette 22rearwardly back into compartment 20 in ferris wheel structure 12. Byproviding a stop (not shown) for member 52, motor 68 drives member 50away from member 52 and toggles members 54 out of contact with cassette22. Continued actuation of motor 62 returns the cassette handler 14 tothe position shown in FIG. 5.

The invention has been described in detail with particular reference topreferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variationsand modifications can be effected within the scope and spirit of theinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. In a magnetic tape cassette system having acassette storage location and a cassette receiving location, magnetictape cassette handling apparatus comprising:pushing means locatedadjacent to said cassette storage location for pushing a cassette; aslide member spaced from said pushing means; a pair of clamping membersfor clamping a cassette, said clamping members being pivotally mountedon said slide member and being pivotally linked to said pushing means;means for biasing said clamping members together; means for movablymounting said pushing means and said slide member; and actuating meanscoupled to said slide member for causing said slide member and saidpushing means (1) to move in a first direction wherein said pushingmeans moves a cassette between a storage location and said cassettereceiving location, wherein said pushing means and said slide member arespaced apart and said clamping members are retracted out of clampingengagement with said cassette, and (2) to move in a second oppositedirection, wherein said pushing means and said slide members are movedadjacent to one another and said clamping members are extended to clampa cassette located at said receiving location, so as to move saidcassette between said receiving location and a cassette storagelocation.